There are many voices in the world and none without significance and God wanted us to consider 4 specific voices and which one we hear the most, why, and how to move on until we get to being a Son.
The Voice of Thunder--When God spoke to the children of Israel from Mount Sinai the first time--they heard Him like thunder and were afraid. They backed up away from the presence of God and decided to just have their leader, Moses, talk to God and tell them what He said. Yet, what God was doing was calling them to obedience so they could truly be His people, set apart unto Him. Their slave mentality kept them from hearing a loving God giving them instructions for life. Today, many times we hear the instructions of God as thunder--our flesh doesn't like it, we back up from Him, instead of moving towards Him to obey.
The Voice in the Wilderness calling us to Repentance. John the Baptist challenged the religious people of his day to produce fruit worthy of repentance--meaning have consistent evidence of obedience showing we've truly repented. If we want to remain a slave to some other god (namely ourself) we will keep the attitude of "I'll repent later" so we can keep doing what we really want to do. However, if we want to deepen our relationship with God we will want to finally obey consistently, producing fruit worthy of repentance.
The Voice of the Shepherd--calling us to Follow. When we hear the Shepherds voice and follow Him, He will lead us to green pastures. A place of safety where we are taken care of. However--what He is really after is us following Him to learn to care about others more than ourselves--start thinking daily about evangelism and stepping out in obedience to do it. If we keep following, He will lead us to the Father.
The Voice of the Father--calling us to Sonship. We may come to God as a child, putting our complete trust in Him, yet we do need to grow up and mature, truly having His heart so that we will continually be about His business. We don't automatically become a son because we believe--we must receive (develop an intimate relationship) with Him in order to have the privilege to become a son.
God is really after relationship with all of us and He wants us to progress through the voice we hear Him by obeying Him and continually moving towards Him not backing away. Ultimately He wants us to become sons whom He can send out in the power of His Spirit to be His witness and be about His business daily--that involves a whole lot more than talking. This is where evangelism goes from something we have to think about and purpose to do daily to who we are because people are who we think about and care about.The progression is leaving behind the old slave mindset and coming to knowing the loving Father that He truly is and being about the Family business every day.
Let's discuss the message with just a few questions to get us going.......
What Voice have you been the most familiar with or heard the most often and why?
What are you going to do now to progress to a deeper relationship/changing positions so you hear another voice?
What aha or ouch did you have?
I look forward to growing up and maturing with each of you!!
His Servant,
Elder Christy
What a great message Elder Christy!
Definitely brings the whole new perspective of what are you listening too?
1 the main two voices I've been hearing is The voice of thunder and the voice in the wilderness. In the times that the voice of the thunder is when I take things wrong. Like how you mentioned with the Israelites and Moses is that they didn't want to go to the father because didn't want to hear the thunder. But what really God was still speaking with love and they didn't take it in that perspective. Do I see myself in that area yes even when I'm in the wilderness voice. My heart is to come to true repentance and after…
What voice have you been the most familiar with or heard the most often and why?
I've heard the voice of thunder, and wilderness, So I can look back say I have experience All four voices at different times in my life but the main would be the thunder, and wilderness, the thunder scared me in a sense hearing God in a profound way and me falling to understand and not obeying him I allowed fear in and the enemy instead of God. The wilderness I have had not had a good harvest I most definitely had some dry season's in not fully follow Jesus to show me the way to the father and the importance of repentance of my…
What Voice have you been the most familiar with or heard the most often and why? I’ve heard the voice of thunder, in the wilderness, and of the Shepherd often. But the ones that I am probably most familiar with would be that of thunder and the voice in the wilderness. Realizing that I had to ask myself “why is that?” Why even though I know the voice of the Shepherd is it that the sounds of the other two are the ones that stick out in my memory? Why is the upsetting of self what makes them memorable? Why isn’t the leading, the guiding memorable? -examining myself, I realized that it’s for the same reason a child remembers the…
Thank you for bringing this word Elder Christy. You draw me to grow and mature.
1. What Voice have you been the most familiar with or heard the most often and why?
Well I've certainly experienced the first 2 (thunder and wilderness) many times and been around the voice of the Shepherd as well. I've been familiar with the ouch of the thunder, difficult to hear, and not hearing the love of God in the instructions giving into fear and drawing away. And familiar with voice in the Wilderness, been a beneficiary of the grace and patience of God to repent. But also (and here's some ouches) had the selfish mindset of "I'm saved so that's good enough". And the…
What voice have you been the most familiar with or heard the most often and why? I think the voices that I have heard most often are the voice of thunder and the voice in the wilderness. I have at times heard God say something that I felt was just too hard to deal with, so a backing way happened or a digging in of the heals and just not wanting to budge. Then at times I have relented in those situations and allowed the voice in the wilderness to call me to repentance, to change my mind about what God had said.
What are you going to do now to progress to a deeper relationship/changing position, so you…